Six years ago, David Cope destroyed one of the world's most talented composers. Her name was Emmy, and she'd written thousands of musical scores that were indistinguishable from classics by Mozart. But Emmy's younger, brighter daughter named Emily lives on.

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David Cope is an emeritus professor at University of California. His last piece of music composition software, Emmy (expanded from EMI, or Experiments in Musical Intelligence), was shelved six years ago in a wake of controversy. Today, his follow-up Emily Howell attempts to do what Emmy could not: Write original, modern music, rather than simply recreate the style of a bygone era.

Miller-Mccune's full story on Emily and Professor Cope is fascinating, not only because it includes snippets of Emily's original compositions, but because of its insight into the future of composition—namely, that human composers will rely upon machines for tasks once deemed creative.

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In fact, Cope has divulged that one unnamed pop group has already signed him to help write new material. And while it's hard to accept Man's impending artistic obsolescence, look at the bright side. Philip Glass will be kicked to the curb in no time. [Miller-Mccune]